Chapter 16

Editor: SleepyMango123

Proofreader: Lore

This kind of sweet torture could make one go crazy. Xia Tian contemplated for a while and suddenly changed the subject. “That’s right! You just mentioned that whatever that I request for the first time, you will agree… Is it true?”

Han Cheng nodded. He looked at Xia Tian with interest, wondering what he would ask for.

“In that case, I’ll just say it.” Xia Tian blasted the distracted thoughts aside and swallowed nervously. “I wanted to find a good time to tell you later, that’s…”

Xia Tian struggled to continue. “Our midterm exams require parents to attend a parent-teacher meeting.”

Han Cheng didn’t react for a while.

“My grades…I will work harder. But… I feel that I still wouldn’t be able to surpass the classmate before me, so… My ranking should still be the lowest.” Xia Tian continued with shame, “So, after the midterm exam, if our teacher calls Big Brother Liang, can you let him have a half-day off and let him come over and attend the meeting?”

“He won’t be going. I will go instead,” Han Cheng said.

Xia Tian stared at Han Cheng lifelessly, causing Han Cheng to frown slightly. “It’s your parent-teacher meeting. Why let an outsider attend?”

Han Cheng looked at him and slowly continued, “Since when was your relationship with Liang Qingfeng so good? Would you rather for him to attend the conference?”

“No, no, I just didn’t expect you to come. After all… being the last place…” Xia Tian subconsciously tried to clarify. “In addition, I’m not familiar with him. I am afraid of him, really.”

Han Cheng didn’t know what Xia Tian was struggling with, so he smiled helplessly. “Even though I am busy, I’ll still spare the time to attend the parent-teacher meeting. Don’t worry.”

The wild beast in Xia Tian’s heart was jumping joyfully. Han Cheng…will attend the parent meeting for him!

Xia Tian cleared his throat and solemnly promised in a low voice, “Well, I will work harder these days before the exam and try my best to… make you less embarrassed.”

Han Cheng smiled. He didn’t think it was shameful at all.

And it seemed that Xia Tian had probably used up all his courage to tell himself about it.

Han Cheng thought for a while and smiled thoughtfully. “Since I’ll be going, you don’t need to tell your mother about this matter.”

Xia Tian was stunned. Han Cheng cheekly reminded him, “When you head home this weekend, don’t expose yourself.”

Xia Tian’s eyes instantly brightened and he nodded hurriedly. “Yes, since you’ll be going, just… don’t tell my mother! If she knows about my poor grades, she would be worried and think that I cannot endure anything… She thinks too much. Actually, I’m all right.”

Xia Tian sincerely continued, “My classmates are amazing. It’s normal for them to get better grades than me. In addition, nobody ever laughs at me and they usually help me with questions… All of them are very good. I am very happy being in this class.”

Han Cheng had guessed it earlier. Zhou Yun was very thoughtful but was too sensitive when taking care of Xia Tian.

However, Xia Tian was not that fragile.

Even though he was rebellious, his heart was strong. Without the sentimentality of his peers, he was very optimistic and his ability to withstand pressure and blows was very good. Han Cheng was deeply satisfied with his evaluation.

Soon enough, they arrived at Xia Tian’s school. Han Cheng raised his hand to check his watch and commented, “Good. You’re not late. Go on.”

Xia Tian nodded. He put his hand on the door handle, hesitated for a second and whispered, “Also, Uncle Han…Thank you for today.”

Had Han Cheng not arrived in time, he could’ve been countlessly pestered by Yan Lihua.

He was very grateful as not only did Han Cheng come, he also made his intentions very clear and stopped Yan Lihua from using similar incidents to recruit Xia Tian to be her lobbyist.¹Someone hired by a business or a cause to persuade legislators to support that business or cause.

“You don’t need to be so polite. I’m doing this not just for you.” Han Cheng smiled. “If you really agreed, I’ll have a headache if Chairman Yan kept urging me for endless requests every day.”

Xia Tian hurriedly replied, “How could that be…”

“Knowing that you are sensible, it wouldn’t be this way.” Han Cheng interrupted the topic in a timely manner, “Did you eat a lot for lunch?”

Xia Tian smiled bitterly. “Not that much. It wasn’t that good.”

As long as Yan Lihua was at the table, he was not comfortable to eat freely.

“Be patient for awhile. I’ll take you out to eat tonight,” Han Cheng said.

Xia Tian blinked. “Go out to eat?!”

After more than a month of marriage, the two of them had never gone out together as a pair.

Han Cheng chuckled. “Haven’t you had enough of Auntie’s cooking?”

“I haven’t had enough.” Even though he said that, Xia Tian was still looking forward to going out with Han Cheng. He was a little excited, but unsure. “Is it okay? What if someone sees…”

“It wouldn’t be that coincidental. Besides, if they see something, it doesn’t really matter.” Han Cheng said, “I’ll pick you up from school tonight. Go on now.”

Xia Tian nodded, smiled and got out of the car.

However, the scene of Han Cheng and Xia Tian entering the hotel together in the evening was broadcasted on the news.

It was a coincidence that the place where Han Cheng and Xia Tian had dinner happened to be the hotel where a Hong Kong star was staying. The paparazzi stayed outside the hotel throughout the whole time but did not get a glimpse of the Hong Kong star and had photographed the pair entering by mistake.

Many people knew that Han Cheng had gotten married abroad last month. The marriage was very low-key. It was said that Han Cheng’s newlywed wife had helped him a lot in his career and that the other party had been living abroad since childhood.There were many rumours circulating but Han Cheng didn’t respond to any and had never mentioned anything about his newly wedded wife to the public. After marrying, he never appeared in public wearing a wedding ring, either.

From beginning to end, Han Cheng’s treatment of his marriage was extremely perfunctory. Deep down, everyone knew that this was just a cliché and practical business marriage.

Since it was a marriage without feelings, it was no surprise that there would be an affair. The paparazzi who took the photos didn’t think much about it and sent them directly to the team.

Han Cheng had always been indifferent towards his own rumours. He did not respond nor clarify and didn’t spend money on rectifying the news. The secret camera team did not try to contact Han Cheng and it was made big that night.

It would be alright if that was just the case. The editor of the portal website that first published the news hesitated a while after seeing the boy who was with Han Cheng.

After receiving the photos, the first thing they did was to search for Han Cheng’s “New Lover” data. At first they thought that the other party was a newly debuted model, some 18th line star ²Refers to the type of celebrities that look familiar in the circle but are never famous. It could also refer to the artists that were once a hit but now they are ones nobody cares about., or else a young master from the “Celebrity circle” group. The team worked overtime and searched for a few hours but found nothing.

No information about the “New Lover” was found, and the popularity of the news hits dropped a lot. The most important thing was that they could not determine the age of this “New Lover”.

Although Xia Tian was tall, his features were delicate. His looks were on the border between youth and adulthood. It was impossible to judge how old he was based on his appearance alone.

The editor who had interviewed Han Cheng before knew that he was not easy to provoke. He was afraid that Han Cheng’s new lover was actually a minor and it would cause a large scandal.

Whether news like affairs were true or not, they still reported it numerous times each month. But if the person involved was a minor, the outcome would be different. The editor only wanted to get the attention of the public by having such a hot topic discussion and not court disaster.

Usually these kind of celebrities wouldn’t care about them. First, they were afraid of getting accused and leading to more scandals. Second, they weren’t physically hurt and they wouldn’t bother to pay attention.

But if they were to be stabbed at a sore spot, they wouldn’t be able to endure it when they were being investigated.

But for such big news, it would be a pity to conceal it. However, the editor was clever. Before publishing, he covered Xia Tian’s face with mosaics and then added it with a very explosive title, “After marriage, the head of the Han family, Han Cheng entered the hotel with a male partner or ’New Lover’, and caught every reader’s attention.

The rumours of Han Cheng and Xia Tian’s marriage being in trouble were spread in such a way to the public.

• 1
  Someone hired by a business or a cause to persuade legislators to support that business or cause.
• 2
  Refers to the type of celebrities that look familiar in the circle but are never famous. It could also refer to the artists that were once a hit but now they are ones nobody cares about.